If you have a long sales cycle, you usually close business via a sales team (as opposed to on your website or in-store), or you have a high-value product or service and a modest database of prospective customers, Pardot is likely to be your preferred automation solution. The same applies to account-based marketing approaches.
This is because the functionality phone number cambodia of Pardot allows for excellent lead nurture.
Whilst it has email automation in the same way Marketing Cloud Engagement does, Pardot has a more advanced ability to easily create drip marketing campaigns that are highly personalised, using website behaviour and interactions as the triggers. It's ideal for proactive nurture that coaxes prospects through the customer journey.
Pardot also features sophisticated automation for assigning leads to users of the platform, based on intelligent lead grading and scoring. What’s more, you can set up automated notifications when leads are active on-site, a functionality you won’t find in Marketing Cloud Engagement.
Beyond nurturing leads, Pardot makes it simple to pass information about leads to the sales team, including their digital behaviour such as website and content engagements, so those closing sales have the context they need to tailor conversations and proposals effectively. In short, Pardot enables sales teams as well as marketers.
Which is best for your business?
Use case
Marketing Cloud Engagement makes for the best choice if your business needs a platform to more easily engage with large volumes of customers across multiple channels, assisting in their customer journey. Those in the retail or FMCG industries are likely to see great benefits in the features of Marketing Cloud Engagement.
Pardot is the right option if your sales process requires long-term nurture and you need to bridge the gap between your sales and marketing teams. Those with products of high sales value or with long sales cycles will benefit most from Pardot.
Both platforms integrate with Sales Cloud, although the process of linking Marketing Cloud Engagement is much more complex than Pardot, which is fully out-of-the-box.
Price
Of course, a major consideration when comparing both platforms is price. If you feel as though both Pardot and Marketing Cloud Engagement could work for your business, budget may be the deciding factor because Marketing Cloud Engagement can typically come with a higher overall cost. The payment structure is based on the edition you need plus a cost for the modules you need access to. Think of it like subscriptions to each module that can be added or removed as needed.
Pardot, on the other hand, is priced by edition, with some add-ons available at an additional cost to the lower tiers. Both platforms come with some usage restrictions that can also affect cost.
As both Account Engagement and Marketing Cloud Engagement consultants, we are hands-on with both platforms every day. If you need support with implementing or using either, get in touch.